OK, So I finally found a partner for the ABD Garden Prairie 2 man TT. In pre race discussions he says I was faster than him ... never said how much faster, ...

So we do some pre-race warm-ups and I realize he can't turn around. I gain about 30 seconds every time we try it. I finally give up. I was also concerned that I was dropping him a little on the warm up but didn't worry as maybe he was just taking it easy.

So ....

We roll to the line and his rear tire is nearly flat. The valve extender is leaking and we finally get enough air in it literally 10 seconds before the start. Not a good omen.

It was really windy, 20-30 mph with gusts, made riding with deep dish front and rear disc a decent challenge. It was pretty cold too. Off we go.

I start out and put about 100 feet on him at the start. I wait a bit and then go again. Look back, another 50 feet. Uh oh ... I wait for him to catch up again and slowly start to ramp the speed back up. We are only doing about 22 or 23 mph with a big tail wind. He signals to take a pull. I ease up ... he eventually pulls through ... and then slows down to 20 mph ... with the wind!

I wait a minute and my hr monitor shows under 70% and I pull ahead and say ... "Let me pull the whole time, just hold my wheel." and off I go. Cranked it up to just 28 and dropped him again. Now I know I've got trouble. I try to tell him to let me know when I can go stronger or when I should slow up. He says he's near his max. Ugghh! Now we're going really slow, literally below 15 mph on a section into the wind, with my pulling and sitting up to block the most wind. My HR is still barely 80% and I say this isn't working very well as I'm not getting a workout and we really aren't practicing much as we're not rotating or anything.

He says he'd like to try a little longer. Umm ... OK. We get to the turn around and I can't take it ... so I take off. I know it's not nice to do but I doubt he has ever cracked 1:15 on a 40k tt so he should have told me that and I wouldn't have wasted my time riding with him! Now I'm pretty pissed and cruising into a brutal headwind most of the way.

Now for the fun part. I had a turn from an angled wind into a strong head wind again. In this process, I'm in the aero drops and about 20 mph. As I make the turn, a pretty big gust hits me and I thought I corrected my line enough ... key word thought. As I near the exit of the turn, I realize I'm going too fast to stay on the road. There is about a 3" drop off onto gravel... a ditch, and then a farm field.

Boom, off the road, try for some brakes, hit the gully, fly over the handlebars, bike digs in ... carp!. Bounce up, nothing broken on me, a course guy right behind my in a car jumped out and grabs my bike, spins the wheels and it looks OK. I hop back in ... try to clip in with all the mud on my cleats ... and off I go. The guy laughs and says "Sure your OK?". It's funny, you'll see my heart rate rise in the crash ... little panic boy lol.

In total I was down for a little over 10 seconds. At least when I crash I do it quickly. Here are a couple shots.

Moral to the story ... 1. Pick a partner close to your fitness level. 2. Be careful with a rear disc in gusty conditions.













PS
I Suck! Crashing in a TT???

My neck is killing me and something in my left groin hurts. Still plan to ride today.